Persons Unknown: Season 2
by Swamp Fairy
Summary: The Six struggle to 'win,' Joe struggles to decide where he stands, Mark struggles to escape, and Kat struggles to survive. Who can they trust?
1. Chapter 1

**Review: First Thirteen Weeks**

Joe: "Seven people, simply going about their lives. Seven innocent people, with no idea of what's about to happen."

_Blackham._

_Morse._

_Tori._

_Moira._

_McNair._

_Joe._

_Janet._

"One day, everything's normal. The next- men in blue coveralls, appearing out of nowhere, taking away from everything they know."

_"Mommy!" Megan wails, as the men drag Janet away._

"They awake in a hotel, in an essentially deserted town, with no idea where they are or why they were chosen."

_The town. The hotel. One of the identical rooms. __"I want to go home!" shrieks Tori._

"Those who search for them have no hope."

_Kat is thrown roughly into a cramped cage. She stares out, hair wild, biting back a scream. Renbe awakes in his own hotel room._

"Tensions rise as their captors begin playing with them."

_A gas mask, filled with a toxic green substance, the wearer choking and pulling at it._

"One guest checks out, another checks in."

_Tori, smiling as tears flow down her cheeks, climbing into a taxi. Erika, screaming, kicking Blackham in the stomach._

"A traitor is unmasked."

_Joe, straight faced, standing in the Inner Sanctum, surrounded by screens with the various guests on them._

"Their darkest secrets are revealed."

_"My father started coming in my room at night." A tear runs down Moira's face. "I strangled them both with this scarf."_

"And then, the endgame. One, and only one, can survive."

_Moira slams Erika against the piano, smashes her in the door. Throws McNair over the rail._

_Janet with a fire extinguisher, Moira on the floor dead._

_"We're the only ones left," she tells Joe. He hands her a flask. She drinks. Collapses._

"And we played right into their hands. Or did we?"

_Inside a van, filled with body bags. Slowly, one unzips from the inside. Janet, alive. The others unzip as well._

_"It worked," Janet whispers. "They believed what they saw."_

"We got away. Or at least, they did. But for how long?"

_Janet, going to sleep with her daughter in a very different motel room._

_Moira and Erika, dressed in long robes, pushing through a crowd._

_Morse and Blackham, talking around a fire._

_Janet awakes- in the same hotel room. Silently, she exits. One by one, so do the others. They step into the elevator. Step out, but not into the hotel. Onto a ship._

_A man with an eyepatch smiles. "Welcome," he says. "To Level Two."_

**SCENE**

The six stand together on the deck of an enormous ship, almost a collection of several different ships, melded together by rust. Rain pours down on them from an impenetrable cloud cover, lightning flashes frighteningly close. The man- not any man, the old manager- smiles at them, folding his arms confidently across his chest. A long pause as thunder booms, then Erika steps forward. "This ain't the hotel," she tells him.

"No, it's not. Aren't you glad?"

"Oddly enough, I'm not," Charlie says. "Where the hell are we, anyways? And how are you still alive?"

"I'm the Captain now," he tells them. "And you should know by now that question and answer is not how it works."

"Where's Joe?" Janet asks quietly.

The smile slides off his face. "Joseph won't be joining you, I'm afraid. You see, the higher ups had to think long and hard about what to do with you all. Usually it's only the one person who survives who advances on. In your case, of course, you can see why this would be problematic."

"Because we weren't willing to play your games?" Erika growls.

"Because you all survived. It was decided that you showed enough... initiative for each and every one of you to be given another chance." The smile reappears. "Use it well."

"How does it work this time?" Moira asks. She was the only one who had remained in the elevator, and she leans against the doorway, face pale.

"I can't tell you that." The Captain sneers. "I'll just say... you're here until you win. I've been instructed to show you around. You've all already seen your living quarters. For the time being, you are restricted to those, this deck, and the levels below. Perhaps in time, that area will be extended."

"Will you be in contact with us?" Janet asks, not meeting his eye as his glare turns on her.

"On occasion. I shall, of course, be monitoring you. If you... require... anything, you should check the supplies deck, right below this one."

There is a long pause. No one seems to know what to do or where to look. The Captain stares at each and every one of them, then speaks up. "If that will be all, please excuse me. I have work to do." He turns on his heel, descends a staircase none of them had noticed, and slams the trap door above his head. There is another long moment of silence, broken again by Erika. She lets of a scream of frusteration, crouching down and pounding on the door.

"Let us out, you creep! I'm going to kill you all!"

"Erika," Janet says at once, kneeling besides her. Erika bites down on her lip hard, seemingly fighting with herself. But she falls silent and stands.

"I hate this place," she growls, wiping furiously at her eyes with the back of her hand.

Charlie turned and stard at Blackham. "How the hell did they find us?" he demanded. "We were in the middle of nowhere!"

"And Erika and I were in the middle of a city," Moira whispers, almost too quiet to be heard. "Nowhere is safe."

"I woke up in a hospital," Janet says, a slight smile curving over her face simply remembering. "And I went home, to my mother and daughter. We ran." The smile disappears. "If they hurt a hair on her head..."

"What about you?" Moira asks, eyes on McNair. But he doesn't look at her, taking a deep breath before answering.

"The last thing I remember was crashing the car," he says shortly. "Next thing I know, I'm awake back in that goddamned room, exactly the same as I left it."

Moira's gaze lingers on him for a moment as Blackham speaks up. "And those freaking cameras everywhere you turn. But I didn't feel the room moving, like it should have been on a ship."

"My writing was still there," Moira says, finally turning to the others. "Exactly as it was, I think." She shudders.

"What are we going to do?" Charlie asks at last, hopelessly.

"We do what we did last time," Janet says strongly. "We survive. And we escape. And this time, we don't let them catch us."

**SCENE**

Kat huddles in the corner of her cage. Her hair is matted and streaked back with dirt and sweat, as is her face. Her cloths are ripped and covered with a layer of filth and grime. She hugs herself tightly, shaking with the cold of the night. The air rings with gunshots and furious shouts in a language only vaguely familiar. Tears glimmer on her eyelashes but her jaw is set with determination.

"Do they feed us?" she asks Ambassador Fairchild.

"When they remember," he tells her. "But it's usually dog food, I think. And we get water once a day. They beat us if we speak to them, or try to escape. We're nothing more than animals in here."

"Yeah? Do I look like an animal to you?" She shakes her head. "I just wish I know what they did with Mark."

"He was captured with you?" Fairchild asks, his face creasing with worry. "But not brought here?"

"No. What does that mean?"

"Well, he could have been taken to another camp like this. Or he could have been taken to one of the towns. Or... he could have simply been killed. Or something else. I don't know."

Kat shakes her head again, harder. "He's fine. And he's going to find me."

"I admire your faith," Fairchild says wearily.

"It's not faith. They came after us for a reason- because we got close enough to the truth to scare them. And if Mark can do all that for his ex-wife, imagine what he'll do to find me."

**SCENE**

"I'm Victoria Fairchild, and I'm the new night manager. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to let me know." Tori settles back against the desk with a slight smirk. Joe meets her eyes, gives her the briefest of a nod, and turns to the group. He's about to speak, but Renbe jumps to the punch.

"Tori?" he asks, mouth open. "The Ambassador's daughter?"

A slight frown creases her face. "Not important."

"I've been searching for you!" Renbe strides up to the desk, slams a fist down. "What the hell did they do to you?"

"Do to me?" she asks cockily. "I think the question, _sir_, is what they're going to do to you."

"I want to know exactly what this madhouse is, and I want to know now!" He leans forwards, staring furiously into her eyes. Just then, however, another guest lets out a wail and sinks to the floor. Mark turns but Joe gets there first.

"It's okay," he says to the woman. "Can you tell me your name?"

"I... Imani," she whispers. She looks to be in her early fourties, dark skin, coal black short hair. "Where are we? What are we doing here?"

"I don't know," Joe says, casting a brief look up at Renbe. "I went to bed last night like normal, and woke up here."

"I was kidnapped," says another woman- late teens, layered black hair, Hispanic, stick thin- "Men in blue suits. I was alone in my apartment. I'm Mya."

"I was taken too," the man in his fifties tells them. "I was just leaving the library."

The third woman, also with long dark hair, crosses her arms tightly across her chest, staring at all of them with fear plastered on her face. Just then, Renbe thinks of something else. He turns back to Tori. "And what the bloody hell did you do with Kat?" he hisses, voice barely controlled.

"I don't know anything about a cat, sir," she tells him. "I'm just the night manager."

He turns away from her, grabs Joe by the neck of his shirt and pulls him to his feet. Imani shrieks again, scuttling away from him. "Well, _Father?_ Are you willing to talk yet?"

"What are you doing?" the third woman demands. "He's one of us!"

"No he isn't," Renbe spats. "My ex-wife was kidnapped two months ago by men in blue suits, and was taken to a town _just like this_ with him-" he thrusts a finger at Joe- "And her-" a finger at Tori- "And maybe others, I don't know. Myself and a... friend... spent the past two months chasing the blue coveralls all over the world. They got us in a hospital, must have brought me here. I don't know where she is." He pauses. "I'm Mark Renbe, by the way."

"You seem to know an awful lot about all of this, Mr. Renbe," the older man says suspiciously. Mark turns to the women, but all three back away. The other man, however, dressed in some sort of janitor uniform, gives him a nervous nod.

"I believe him," he says, his voice cracking. "We all heard about the Ambassador's daughter's kidnapping."

"Yes, but she turned up _dead_," says the third woman. "I don't know who _she_ is."

"Can I speak for myself?" Joe asks, pulling forcibly away from the reporter. "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know any Janet, and I've certainly never been here before. I'm just like the rest of you."

"Bullshit," snorts Renbe. But he falls silent.

"Well, I'm Ed," says the one man who had stuck up for him. "At your service."

"And I'm Amy," the oldest woman tells them. "Do any of you know why you might have been taken?"

"Me?" asks Ed. "I'm a minimum wage janitor living in a one room apartment."

"Any family?" Amy asks.

"None. No one to pay a ransom, that's for sure."

"Same," Mya says sullenly, staring down at her hands.

"I'm here because we were close," Renbe repeats, turning to stare up at the camera. "We were close. And we're going to get you."

**SCENE**

Moira sits cross-legged on the deck of the ship, sheltered from the elements by a slight overhang, studying the scene with narrowed eyes. Janet sits beside her, almost but not quite touching. Morse paces back and forth, wearing a poncho but still getting drenched by the downpour. Blackham doesn't even try to protect himself from the rain, leaning back against the rail and letting the water soak him.

A door slams and all four turn to watch as Erika emerges from the same stairs the Captain had gone down. "Well, I found the food," she says sourly. "Cans. And cans. And more cans. Nothin' else of use. No idea where the Captain got to." She kicks the ground and drops down on the other side of Janet, wrings out her shirt. "At least back in the town there was decent food."

Janet nods, just as McNair emerges from a door on the other side of the elevator. "More storage," he shouts over the wind. "Huge crates, either locked or empty." He shakes his head.

"Screw this," Morse says, stomping past the three women. "I'm going back to my room to get dry and sleep and maybe when I wake up, it will turn out this was all a dream." He pushes hard at the elevator button and the door opens. He steps inside, holds it. "Anyone else?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Erika agrees, following him. McNair follows, eyes briefly meeting Moira's as he passes her but neither of them saying a word. Charlie steps back, letting the door close, and the three remaining avoid looking at each other.

The wind picks up. The rain is pouring harder, turning into sleet which pings against the metal of the freighter.

One long, jagged streak of lightning flashes across the sky.

* * *

><p><strong>Is there any interest in this? Obviously, if no one's reading it, there's no need to post the rest. But if someone is- cool. :) Please drop a review!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**You all asked, and I delivered. You know, six months later, but here it is.**

* * *

><p><strong>SCENE<strong>

McNair paces. From the bathroom door to the shuttered window and back again. His walk is military issue, perfectly even footsteps that keep perfectly even timing. Just then, a knock on his door.

"Come in," he calls, and brings his feet together, standing at attention. The door opens and Moira slips uncertainly inside. She closes it with a click and stands looking at him. Her dark hair is plastered to her face and neck with rainwater. "Yes?"

"Graham," she says, just his name, her voice trembling. He stares at her, stony faced, and she turns away. But then he's there, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her to him.

"It's alright," he murmurs against her ear, eyes closed tightly. "It's all going to be alright."

**SCENE**

Pitch darkness. Then a woman shouts, there's a clanging, and the light turns on in the storage unit.

"Jeez, what're you trying to do, scare me to death?" Bill demands. He's sitting down in the corner with his back against the wall, holding an open can of creamed corn.

"Sorry about that," Janet apologizes. She's knocked over a pile of cans which lie in disarray at her feet. She crouches and restacks them into an uneven pyramid.

"I'll leave the light on next time," he tells her.

"What, were you just sitting in here in the dark?" she asks.

Blackham shrugs. "What's there to see?"

And because he's right, she doesn't question it. She takes another can- everything in this unit, evidently, is just creamed corn. She hopes that creamed corn isn't all they're going to have to eat. He wordlessly hands her a rusty can opener.

"It's crazy, right?" he asks, before she's able to escape without any further conversation.

"What is?"

"All of this. Them finding us. Bringing us here. The old night manager's back! All those scars, too. Good thing Joe's not here, or I bet his old friend would have a few words for him."

"They weren't friends," Janet corrects him harshly. "Joe saved us, don't forget."

"I'm not arguing that Joe turned out to be a stand up guy," he says. "Although I don't know if I would call this saved, would you?"

She glares at him. "Don't think like that. Look, Blackham, you're the last person any of us want to trust. If you want that to change, maybe you should start helping out some. Think about what we can do to survive, how we can escape."

"Escape?" He laughs. "Look, lady, we're trapped on a hulk of a ship in the middle of some god-forsaken ocean. Unless you want to swim..."

"Have you ever considered that maybe there are rowboats on board?" she suggests. "Or what if they stop somewhere to restock on supplies? It's a long shot, but giving up is certainly not going to help." She shakes her head and turns to leave.

"Who says I've given up?" he mutters angrily. She halts at the door, but leaves without another word.

**SCENE**

Kat's tired and angry and in a fair deal of pain. Blood drips down her face from a large gash across her forehead, running in rivulets over her cheek and onto the floor of the cage. She blinks slowly, opening teary eyes.

"Ms. Damatto. Ms. Damatto! Kat!"

"What?" she asks groggily, pushing herself into a sitting position. She touches her head and her fingers come back scarlet and sticky.

"Are you alright?" Fairchild demands.

"Yes. Yes, I'm... I'm fine."

_A soldier screaming at the top of his lungs in a different language as another drags her to her feet. Her first raises a hand and slaps her, then pulls a knife and slashes it towards her face._

"You're lucky they didn't take out your eyes."

"Yes, I feel blessed," she replies sarcastically.

"Here." He struggles to thrust his arm through the bars of his cage and drops a tiny, dusty tube into hers.

"What is this?" She picks it up gingerly.

"Neosporin. There's a bit of a black market, even in here."

"For what?"

"Food. Clothing. Favors."

She opens the cap squeezes the tiny, precious amount of the medicine onto her fingertip, then rubs it into her wound. Not much, but better than nothing. Hopefully. She winces against the bright sunlight to try to see into the nearby surrounding cages. There are both men and women, young and old, of all ethnicities. Most sit huddled in a corner, wrapped around themselves. Defeated. Kat is determined not to let herself to become one. Damsel in distress has never been her game.

"I can see your mind turning," Fairchild says, giving her a weak smile. He's tired. "What are you thinking about?"

"There are, what, twenty people in here? No more than thirty. They get one new one every few weeks, you said, and one or two will die in the same time frame."

"That all sounds about right. What does it mean?"

She shrugs, grins tightly. "I have no idea. I'm just... examining what I know so far."

"If there was anyone in here who could get out, it would be you," he tells her.

"I'll prove you right."

**SCENE**

They sit around the round table in the Chinese restaurant, each staring at the smooth wood right in front of them. Except for Renbe, that is. He turns his glare from Ed to Amy to Mya to Imani to the businessman (Aaron) and finally to Joe. Renbe lets his gaze fall on the former priest and rest there until Joe glances up at him, starts uneasily, and promptly looks away.

The waiters bustle out, each with a large tray of fragrant food. They place it all around the table and everyone stares at it fearfully.

"Well, they didn't bring us all this way just to poison us," Ed says at last, trying for lightheartedness. He reaches out and scoops a ball of noodles onto his plate. Everyone watches him in silence as he hesitantly lifts it to his mouth and takes a bite- _everyone is frozen until the Sergeant reaches for some food and shovels it in- _then swallows. "Not bad. In fact, it's incredible." He reaches out for an eggroll. There's another long beat of silence, then slowly, one by one, they each take a portion of the meal.

They look at each other now, gazing suspiciously around and trying not to make eye contact.

"You look familiar," Amy says to Mya all of a sudden. "Do I know you?"

"I live in New York," Mya offers. "I lived in Mexico until I was five."

"Hmm." Amy frowns. "Well, I'm from DC. I've been to New York, but I don't see how we would have met." Mya shrugs.

"Are you all American?" Imani asks haltingly. She has a strong accent, although her grammar is perfect. "I was in the Congo before I was taken. My parents worked in the Peace Corps and raised me there. I'm a nurse."

"Wait... so does that mean we might not be in America?" Mya asks, lower lip trembling slightly. The poor girl couldn't be older than 19.

"I think we're in South America," Renbe mutters. "I found a town exactly like this one there."

"What was in it?" Ed asks, although the others all look away from him.

"Body bags and blue coverall guys," Renbe says flatly.

Aaron seems to have decided Joe is his best candidate for survival and is pressing him quietly for information across the table. "You got out before most of the rest of us. Did you see anything?"

"Nothing but the hotel hallway." Joe is brusque and cold, but it doesn't deter the businessman.

"What did you do before you got taken? You look like you could be army."

"I wasn't."

"Well? What did you do, then?"

Joe's saved from answering when the Asian waiter reemerges. He bows to the table and places a new tray with seven fortune cookies in the center. Everyone glances around at each other, uneasy again, then the waiter gives the tray a spin. It slows to a stop and he bows once more before backing away into the kitchen.

Imani, surprisingly enough, is the first to reach out and take her cookie. She cracks it open and reads aloud. "A dubious friend may be an enemy in disguise." She sits back slowly, clutching the slip of paper in her fist.

Aaron gets_ "A person is never too old to learn."_

Mya receives _"All will go well with your new project."_

Ed's fortune simply reads _"Congratulations!"_

Amy's says _"Don't allow limitations to overshadow your talents."_

Joe's says _"Every flower blooms in its own time."_

Renbe cracks his cookie open and freezes, staring down at the paper. "He spun the wheel," Renbe breathes.

"Is that what it says?" Aaron asks, confused.

"No. The waiter... he spun the wheel."

"What is is?"

Renbe holds up his paper. His slip is square instead of rectangular, and about the size of a quarter. A small black and white image is printed on it, depicting a pretty young woman with an angular face and short hair.

"That's my girlfriend," Renbe says. "That's Kat."

**SCENE**

Erika sits on her bed, perfectly still, staring up at the camera. She doesn't so much as blink, just studies it.

_Zoom out to the camera view, someone behind the screen whispering nervously._

Just then, there's a knock on the door. "Come in," Erika calls out softly, still not moving. Janet enters and walks around to sit on the bed. "Hey there, bright eyes. What's eatin' at ya?"

Janet shrugs and sighs. "Nothing beyond the obvious."

"It's gonna be harder this time, and not because of them- we're gonna start cracking. Back in the town, we could hope for freedom. Without that? Dominoes."

"We still can hope for freedom."

"We barely got out for twenty four hours. Look, your speech down there was nice and all, but let's face reality: we're stuck."

Janet turns and studies her, frowning. "I never thought you'd be one for giving up."

"It's all about surviving. You'd do well to remember that, Janet."

There's a long lull, then Janet gets up to leave. "Sleep well."

"You too."

Long after the door swings shut, Erika is still staring at the camera.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm definitely having the hardest time writing for JoeRenbe, and the easiest writing for Kat. I didn't expect that. Anyways, please review! Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up soon :P**


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